In natural populations, courting males of Araneus diadematus are often consumed by females before they have successfully copulated. Despite the possible nutritional benefits of sexual cannibalism for females, the male can derive no benefit by being consumed before copulation. In this study, females that consumed a single male significantly increased their body mass, regardless of the quality of...

Cell cannibalism is an emerging indicator of both the anaplastic grade and invasiveness. It is especially valuable as it eventually helps in assessing tumor behavior. Sixty two cytologically diagnosed (FNAC) cases of breast malignancies were assessed for the presence of cell cannibalism. The results were correlated with the grade/differentiation of malignancy. The study revealed that cell canni...

Cannibalistic and asymmetrical behavioral interactions between stages are common within stage-structured predator populations. Such direct interactions between predator stages can result in density- and trait-mediated indirect interactions between a predator and its prey. A set of structured predator-prey models is used to explore how such indirect interactions affect the dynamics and structure...

Several hypotheses have been proposed to explain the evolution of sexual cannibalism. The foraging strategy hypothesis states that sexual cannibalism may arise as an adaptive foraging strategy, providing females with the nutrients to increase future fecundity. Yet, very few studies have found that nourishment through cannibalism translates into increased fecundity. One explanation for this may ...

Cannibalism is ubiquitous in nature and especially pervasive in consumers with stage-specific resource utilization in resource-limited environments. Cannibalism is thus influential in the structure and functioning of biological communities. Parasites are also pervasive in nature and, we hypothesize, might affect cannibalism since infection can alter host foraging behaviour. We investigated the ...

Transient low-oxygen patches may have important consequences for the population dynamics of estuarine species. We investigated whether these transient hypoxic patches altered population dynamics of the commercially important blue crab (Callinectes sapidus) and assessed two alternative hypotheses for the causal mechanism. One hypothesis is that temporary reductions in habitat due to hypoxia incr...

BACKGROUND Sexual cannibalism may be a form of extreme sexual conflict in which females benefit more from feeding on males than mating with them, and males avoid aggressive, cannibalistic females in order to increase net fitness. A thorough understanding of the adaptive significance of sexual cannibalism is hindered by our ignorance of its prevalence in nature. Furthermore, there are serious do...

The incomplete skeletal remains of a young adolescent (10–12 years of age) recovered from the surface of an earth-oven in Qaranicagi Cave, Site Y2–39, Waya Island, Fiji are used to explore mortuary practices in these islands. Mortuary practices in Fiji are documented in explorer and missionary accounts, and a limited number of excavated burials. Additionally, cannibalism is ethnographically and...

Filial cannibalism (the consumption of one's own offspring) is thought to represent an adaptive strategy in many animals. However, little is known about the details of which offspring are consumed when a parent cannibalizes. Here, we examined patterns of within-brood filial cannibalism in the sand goby (Pomatoschistus minutus). Males spawned sequentially with two females, and we asked whether m...